The Sound of Silence
by TKcloud9
Summary: A distress call, a rescue mission, only three survivors. But there's something everyone's forgetting... and wait. Why are you playing pirates at a time like this?


**A/N: Hello! A bare-bones, take-it-with-a-grain-of-salt crossover between Star Trek and Doctor Who that I found in my hard drive and polished up a bit. Hope you enjoy!**

The _Enterprise_ responded to a distress signal and found the transport ship _Laertes_ drifting in space, unresponsive to hails. There were six bio-sign readings on sensors.

An away team beamed aboard the transport ship with personal force-field suits and full hazmat gear. After a quick check for hazardous biological agents or intruders, they determined that it was a mechanical failure, and got rid of the gear.

A methodical search of the ship for survivors discovered three children huddling unconscious in a supply closet. They were all wearing black eyepatches on their right eyes, and they were sporting light electrical burns on their skin.

The medical team made sure they were stable, and called for transport. For some reason when they were beamed onboard the intruder alert went off, but La Forge assured security that it was just a glitch.

"Two boys, ages 6 and 11, and a girl, age 15," Dr. Crusher reported to the captain and Counselor Troi, when they entered sickbay. "I treated their electrical burns but other than that they're in perfect health."

Picard nodded. "Cmdr. Riker said the ship is experiencing various EM surges."

Crusher nodded. "That would do it." One of the bio-beds beeped, and she moved over to the girl. "I think she's coming around," Dr. Crusher said.

Picard and Troi came over to the bedside as the girl opened her eyes.

"Where am I?" the girl asked, trying to sit up. She touched her face, and her eyes widened. "Where's the boys? Where's my eye-drive? I don't know-" she pressed a hand to her temple.

"It's okay," Dr. Crusher said, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You're on the Federation starship _Enterprise_. The two boys you were with are right over there." She pointed at the two nearest bio-beds. "What's your name?"

"Keren. Keren Lane. That's Aiden and Max, my brothers." She looked around. "Where's our eye-, uh, we were playing a game, do you have our eyepatches?"

"They're right here," Dr. Crusher said, giving her the three little black patches.

Keren took them in her hand, inspecting them for damage, and spent a good thirty seconds inspecting the palm of her right hand. She jumped off the bed, seemingly ignoring the _Enterprise_ officers, and inspected the right hands of both boys. Satisfied, she turned back to the officers. "How'd we get here?" she asked.

"We found your ship floating in space, damaged," Counselor Troi said. "You and your brothers were the only survivors."

Keren's eyes widened and she put a hand to her mouth in shock. She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. "And, no one else?"

"No. Just you. I'm sorry."

Keren nodded solemnly. "Thank you for saving us."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Picard asked, stepping forward.

"We were traveling, just us, and then there were these surges in engineering. Huge electromagnetic surges. They fried everything. One of the officers told us to hide, so we did. And then I just woke up here." She glanced at her palm again.

"Is something wrong?" Troi asked, sensing a deep worry and fear in the girl's mind.

"No," Keren said. "Well, no, I'm fine." She went over to her brothers and touched the little one's cheek gently. "Are they going to be okay?"

"They'll wake up pretty soon," Crusher reassured her.

As if on cue, both boys began to stir. The younger one, Aiden, woke up first, and popped up like a Jack in the Box. "Did we make it?" he asked, and his hand flew up to his eye. "Where'd it go?"

Keren handed him his eyepatch and he put it in his pocket. She turned to Max, who slowly sat up and looked around. "Where are we?" he asked, holding out his hand for his eyepatch. She gave it to him and he stood up next to her.

"The _Enterprise_ ," she replied. "Another ship. They're all gone."

"Oh."

Keren turned to Captain Picard and squared her shoulders, a determined look on her face. "What are you going to do with us now, captain?" she asked.

"Well, we'll have to contact your nearest relatives and drop you on the nearest starbase so you can get home," Picard said.

"We haven't got any relatives," Aiden piped up. "They're all gone."

"Aiden," Keren said warningly. By way of explanation she said to the grownups, "Our parents died and we haven't got any other relatives. I take care of my brothers."

"You're only 16," Dr. Crusher said, frowning.

"So?" Max said, putting an arm around his big sister defensively. "We take care of each other just fine."

"I'm sure you three are hungry," Counselor Troi said tactfully. "How about we go find you something to eat and I'll show you to your quarters while you're with us?"

"Thank you," Keren said, nodding.

Counselor Troi took them to Ten-Forward for sandwiches and milkshakes. They were all jittery and kept checking the palms of their hands. Max kept asking "anything?" every 5 minutes, and Aiden would reply, "all clear."

"What are you doing?" Troi asked, smiling at them cautiously.

"Playing a game," Max said, with an equally cautious look. "Kind of like Marco Polo and I Spy mixed up. Whoever's got watch has to say "All Clear.""

"And if he doesn't?" Troi asked cautiously, sensing that this wasn't a game at all.

"Run," Keren replied, absolutely serious.

"What happened on that ship?" Troi asked, determined to get to the bottom of their strange behavior.

The three children shared a glance and raised eyebrows. Three small nods. Keren took a sip of her milkshake.

Max spoke up. "We fell through a crack in the universes left over from when the TARDIS exploded and accidentally brought a bunch of creepy alien monsters you can never remember back with us and so now we're fighting for our lives because we're part of the resistance back home and we're trained to deal with these things," he said matter-of-factly. "We were trained by a psychopath, a ginger, and a 2000-year-old Roman, everyone waiting for a soothsayer in a bow tie."

Troi stared. She was reading absolutely no deception in him. She looked at Keren.

"It's true," Keren said, taking another sip of shake. "We met him."

"Who?"

"The soothsayer in the bow tie." Keren smiled. "He was fantastic. He fixed everything. Sent Winston Churchill and all the pterodactyls back to their own times, and everything. We were supposed to forget everything too, cuz it never happened, but we got stuck here before that could happen."

Still no trace of deception. These children were not lying. But what they were saying wasn't possible... unless they were all three sharing some sort of mass delusion? Troi decided to tread carefully. "I see. If you're done, I'll take you to your quarters to get some rest."

"All right," Keren said, standing up.

"Wait," Aiden whispered, his face going white.

Keren and Max froze. "Where?" Keren whispered.

"Behind you," Aiden said. "Door."

Troi turned around and gasped. There was a tall, thin alien in an old-fashioned suit, with a giant oversized head and a mouth like an 'O,' and hands with 3 fingers. "Troi to security, intruder alert!" she said, tapping her combadge. "Security team to the mess hall." She took a step forward. "Who are you?" she asked the alien. "How did you get here?"

"Sssssssilenccccce," the alien whispered, rolling its head backwards horrifyingly. "The childrennnn... sssilennnccccceee..."

"How many of you are there?" Keren demanded, from Troi's side.

Troi turned to look at Keren, and suddenly realized that they had their eyepatches on. "What's going on?" she asked, feeling confused, wondering why she felt a sense of horror.

"You don't remember?" Keren asked, staring fixedly at the door to Ten-Forward.

"No. I was going to take you to your quarters, remember?"

"But after that," Max prompted.

"You put on your eye patches," Troi said, raising an eyebrow. "Why'd you do that?"

"To remember," Keren said grimly.

"Remember what?"

At that moment, a security team burst into Ten-Forward, Worf in the lead. "Where's the intruder?" Worf asked the counselor.

"What?" Troi asked, frowning at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You just called an intruder alert," Worf said.

"No, I didn't," Troi said. She looked at Keren. "Did I?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what happened?" Worf asked the girl.

"Yes."

"Well?" Worf growled.

"We can't tell you," Max said.

"Why not?" Worf asked.

"Because then you'll all be dead," Aiden said.

Worf and Troi shared a glance. Worf looked at his security team. "Escort the children to their quarters," Worf said, "and stand guard."

"Yes sir." The security team ushered the three children out, and Worf and Deanna went to find the captain.

He called a conference, and in short order, Picard, Riker, Dr. Crusher, Data, Worf, Troi, and La Forge were in the conference room. "All right," Picard said, "calling intruder alerts without reason, glitches without reasons. Number One?"

"Sir?" Riker asked.

Picard shook his head. "Since we came upon the distress signal, what has gone wrong?"

"When we boarded the ship to search for survivors, the entire away team experienced slight disorientation several times," Data volunteered, "excepting myself."

La Forge spoke up. "When we beamed back onboard, the intruder alert went off, as if someone or something else had beamed aboard with us."

"Have you found the glitch yet?" Picard asked.

"No sir. There's nothing wrong with the computers that we've determined so far."

"Have you and Data been able to figure out why the transport ship exploded?" Riker asked.

"We have determined that it is from a massive power surge from the bridge," Data said. "It does not seem to be a computer malfunction. It is as if something else created it and passed the surge to the ship's systems."

"I see," Picard mused. He looked at Troi. "What about the children?"

Troi reiterated the strange story from the children. "They said it was a game, but they didn't act like they were playing a game. They're very worried about something. They fear for each other, and for us. And there's fear and anger directed at _something_ , but I don't know what. But they're handling all their intense emotions very well. Like they said, they've been trained."

"By a psychopath, a ginger, a Roman, and a soothsayer in a bow-tie?" Dr. Crusher said wryly, echoing Troi's retelling of the story. "It sounds ridiculous."

Picard shook his head grimly. "At this point we must keep an open mind."

Keren, Max, and Aiden were sitting on the bed, listening to music and eating cookies. "What are we going to do?" Max asked his older sister.

She sighed. "I don't know."

Aiden stuffed the rest of the cookie in his mouth. "We caft tell em anyfin," he said through the crumbs.

"Swallow, then speak," Keren scolded him lightly.

He swallowed. "We can't tell 'em anything," he said. " _They_ said not to."

"I know," Keren said calmly. "We can't tell anyone about it, or else they'll be killed. Just like what _they_ did to the other ship. We can't let that happen again."

The door to their quarters slid open and the three of them jumped to their feet. The security guard came in. "You've been called to the conference room," he said briskly. "Come on."

They shared a glance and went with him. When they got there, Picard nodded to the guard. "Dismissed."

"Sir."

Picard looked at the three children. "What do you know about these strange occurrences?" he asked. "What's really going on?"

"Nothing," Keren said firmly, obviously lying.

Troi raised an eyebrow. "You're not very good at deception, Keren," she said softly.

"There's nothing going on," Keren insisted. "Nothing you need to worry about. We can handle it."

"Handle what?" Riker asked. The three children suddenly froze, and stiffened, eyes locked onto a point beyond Picard's shoulder.

"Nothing," Max said hastily.

"Nothing," Aiden echoed, his eyes wide as saucers.

"Everything's fine," Keren finished, edging towards Lt. Worf. "Just, don't look behind you."

As expected, everyone looked behind the captain, and gaped at the tall, ghastly alien.

Keren lunged forward and grabbed the phaser from Worf, pointing it at the alien. "Don't move," she ordered, "or I swear I _will_ use this."

"Intruder alert," Riker said, tapping his combadge.

"Don't look away from it," Max said, moving Aiden and himself to the far corner, their backs to the walls. "Just don't look away from it, or you'll forget."

"You were there, on the passenger ship," Riker told the creature, frowning as the memory faded back into his consciousness.

"And in Ten-Forward," Troi added. "That's why I called the intruder alert. Why couldn't we remember?"

The alien glared at them, and looked at Keren. "You do not have the nerve," it hissed, raising a hand towards her menacingly.

"Don't you dare," she said, moving her finger to the trigger.

"Keren, stop," Picard said, holding out a hand towards her, keeping an eye on the alien. "Don't do anything rash."

"Rash? _Rash_? It _killed_ everyone on that ship because we told them about the Silence, and before that, these creatures have been ruling our Earth for thousands and thousands of years. We _can't_ let it kill all of you, too." Keren gestured with the phaser. "How many of you are there?" she demanded. "Answer me!"

"As many as youuuuuuuuu," the Silence replied after a moment.

"Three," Keren said. "There's three? Good." She took a deep breath, and fired the phaser. It shot out a bolt of blue energy, and the Silence dropped to the ground. "Is it dead?" she asked grimly.

"The phaser was set to stun," Worf informed her.

"Oh." She dialed it up, and shot the alien again. It arced with blue electricity, and then was still. "Now?"

Everyone turned to her in shock, looking away from the alien, and the children could almost see their minds blanking out. Worf moved towards her. "How did you get that?" he asked, taking it away from her. "What were you doing?"

"One down, two to go," Keren said somewhat numbly.

"What did you do?" Troi asked, her mind awash with feelings of guilt and triumph from the three children.

"She killed the alien," Data replied. "I do not believe there was another alternative."

"What alien?" Picard asked.

"That one," Data said, pointing to the Silence on the floor.

Everyone gasped.

"Where did that come from?" Dr. Crusher asked. "Wait..."

"This is what they do," Keren said shakily. "You can't remember them if you're not looking. We have to find the other two. But they can't know you know about us. Look away and forget before they destroy the _Enterprise_ too. Quickly, before the others figure out the other one is gone."

"We'll take care of the other two," Max said, stepping forward. "You can trust us. But you have to look away now."

"Data," Picard said slowly, "did you forget when you looked away?"

"No sir," Data replied.

"How is that possible?" Keren asked, the eye that wasn't hidden by her eyepatch going wide.

"I am an android," Data said. "I have no organic memory to manipulate."

"You will oversee the children and take charge of getting rid of the other two aliens. You will not let us know of your activities, or report your progress, unless we encounter another one and remember," Picard said. He turned in Keren's direction. "Are you sure we can't reason with them?"

"We've tried," Keren said, shaking her head. "The soothsayer tried. The captain of the _Laertes_ tried. They won't listen, and everyone on that ship got killed."

"All right." Picard had to choose between risking everyone on that ship, or shoot first and ask questions later. Right now, there was no other choice. He took a deep breath. "Everyone look away."

"But captain," Worf started.

"There is no other option," Picard said firmly.

They looked away, and the memory was gone. "What were we talking about?" Troi asked. "I got distracted."

Data and the children shared a glance and then Data said, "I believe we were discussing the ETA to Starbase 417. It will take us two days at Warp 5, barring unexpected circumstances."

Picard nodded and stood up. "Thank you, Mr. Data," he said. "Dismissed."

They all filed out, and Data and the children got into a turbolift. As soon as the doors shut, Keren leaned against the wall and slid to the floor in shock. "I killed it," she said numbly. "I actually killed it."

"You did not have an alternative," Data said.

"I know," she said shakily, "but…"

Aiden wrapped his arms around her in a hug. They stayed that way until the lift doors opened and they went to their quarters. Data went in with them and they stood there. "So, what do we do?" Max asked.

"We follow the captain's instructions and get rid of the other two Silence," Keren said firmly, now in control of herself again. She looked at Data. "How do we do that?"

"Is there any way of scanning for the creatures?" Data asked.

"It's ridiculously hard to find them and then remember that you've found one," Keren said. "Even with the eyepatch. And we've got to keep you away from them—they won't hesitate to vaporize you if they know you can see them and don't forget. Can you ignore them if you see one?"

"I do not know," Data said honestly. "They are very hard to ignore."

"True that," Max muttered.

"We'll just have to wait till we encounter one, and go from there," Keren said.

So, they did.

It took two days.

Two nerve-wracking, agonizingly suspenseful days of waiting for a Silence to show up, wandering around the ship looking for them, and feeling eyes on you but turning and finding nothing there.

They got the first one in the middle of the night in Engineering, as it was trying to get La Forge to flood the children's quarters with toxic gas. It was easy enough to get rid of it.

One left.

Data was starting to feel distinctly paranoid by the time they started on final approach to the starbase. Then he saw it—the Silence on the ramp, surveying the bridge, a thoughtful look on its face. No one else had seen it. Yet.

He tapped his combadge. "Data to Keren," he said.

"Keren here."

"Check," he said, as the prearranged signal.

"Mate," she said, per the code. "Keren out."

Picard looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What was that all about?" he asked.

"A game we're playing," Data said. "It is a type of four-dimensional checkers with Pictionary and Clue involved."

"I see," Picard said, raising an eyebrow.

Keren, Max, and Aiden arrived on the bridge at that moment, Keren carrying a phaser compliments of Worf, although he didn't even know it himself. "Data," she said, tossing it to him before anyone could react. He dialed the setting, pointed it at the Silence, and it was vaporized before Picard and company even knew what happened.

"What is _going on_?" Picard demanded, as the 'weapon-discharged' alarm began to blare above their heads, and the turbolifts locked down.

"You may cancel the alert, Mr. Worf," Data said calmly, giving the security officer the phaser.

Worf canceled the alarm with a grumble and pocketed the phaser.

Troi felt a huge wave of relief wash over the three children as they came to the center of the bridge and took off their eyepatches. "They're all gone," Keren said, grinning wildly.

"What are?" Riker asked.

"There were 3 alien intruders on the _Enterprise_ ," Data informed them. "They are able to edit themselves out of your memory. The children and I were the only ones able to remember them, so the captain gave us the task of getting rid of them. We have accomplished the objective."

"And we can finally sleep," Keren added.

"But what are we going to do with the rest of our lives?" Max asked plaintively. "This still isn't our universe."

"Given your experience and training," Data started, but then paused as a strange whooshing sound began to fill the air, a sort of grinding noise that sent chills down everyone's spines.

The three children's jaws dropped. "Is it?" Max whispered.

"It is!" Aiden said, whooping with glee. "It's the TARDIS!"

"The what?" Picard started, but he got his answer a moment later.

A blue box that said "Police" materialized on the bridge of the _Enterprise_. The door to the box opened, and a man in a brown jacket and a bowtie popped out. "Hello, I'm the Doctor," he said, giving the captain an awkward little half-bow, "and I'm looking for 3 smart kids and 3 creepy aliens."

"Doctor!" Keren said, getting his attention.

"Oh good!" he said, sighing in relief and giving them all hugs. "Are you all right? We've been searching for days."

"We?"

"Hello, sweetie," a woman with curly blonde hair and sparkling eyes came out of the box as well and gave Keren a hug. She looked at the Doctor smugly. "I told you they'd be in this subset."

"Whatever," the Doctor scoffed, rolling his eyes. He turned to Captain Picard. "Captain," he said solemnly, suddenly seeming very ancient. "Thank you for taking care of them. This is going to sound silly, but you wouldn't have happened to see 3 tall, scary aliens that you don't remember?"

"What?"

Data spoke up. "We got rid of them."

"You did?" the blonde woman said, looking at the 3 kids in surprise. "Good job."

"It was awesome," Aiden said.

The two boys got in the TARDIS and Keren turned to Data. "Thank you," she said. She looked at all of them. "Thank you all."

"You're welcome?" Riker said, slightly confused.

"Well, goodbye," the Doctor said cheerfully, ushering the two women into the TARDIS. The grinding, whooshing sound began again, and the blue box disappeared as if it had never existed at all.

The bridge crew shared a glance.

"Shall I give you my report, Captain?" Data asked.

Picard shook his head slowly. "I think this one would be better off forgotten."

"Yes sir."

The End.


End file.
